Vagary
by After-tea
Summary: The show had came to a close. Walpurgisnacht had been defeated. Mami was dead and Sayaka had never been a Puella Magi. For she had no more reasons to stay in Mitakihara, Kyoko left. She wandered to Namimori, only to find herself taking part in another play.
1. 01-03

It was a sight to behold.

The wind swirled around, preparing for its arrival. Stepped out of the fog were its familiar. A parade of colorful animals with serpentines and balloons and everything that reminded her of a carnival. Kyoko smirked bitterly at the thought.

If this was a carnival, it might as well be the carnival of death.

She could see a familiar figure stood among the parade. It was Homura. The redhead widened her eyes in disbelief. She was going to fight it - the strongest witch ever in existence - alone? It was a desparated situation, everybody could tell. But her amethyst eyes said otherwise. It was filled with determination. Kyoko shook her head. Homura was truly something.

Just what kind of bastard would she be, if she let Homura fight on her own?

She jumped down from her hiding spot and walked toward Homura. "Hey," she casually said, "You won't survive if you face that thing alone, you know?"

The effect was instantaneous. The purple Puella magi whipped around at her voice, her eyes widened in surprise. "Kyoko?" The redhead nodded. "The one and only." She averted her gaze to the horizon. "So, the witch is coming huh?" She smiled. "Need a hand?"

Homura nodded wordlessly. Kyoko smiled in satisfaction and then transformed. A bright, red light swallowed her in the process. After a few second the light died out, revealed her in her battle dress. Homura too, followed the example. Neither said a word as they waited. Waited for the arrival of the witch.

And then came the queen.

'She' emerged from the gray sky. The witch wore an elegant blue Victorian gown and a pointy hat. It had no legs but gears - a big-ass one, even. Out of all the witchs the Puella magi had encountered, this one resembled a witch most.

Also most terrifying.

It needn't hide in a barrier. Its mere presence brought destruction to the surrounding. Hundreds of people died upon its arrival. Buildings and buildings were levitated from the ground. Its dreadful laughter rang through the air.

'She' was the Stage-constructing witch, grown from the combination of countless other of its kin. She was a legend to Puella Magis, only known through rumors. Few had actually encountered her, and almost none of them survived to tell the tale. The world was 'her' stage. Until 'she' completely changed the whole of this age into a drama, 'she' would not stop rotating. 'She' would turn all of fate's misfortune to nothing. 'She' would flood the earth with magic, and take all of humankind into 'her' play.

 _A moving stage construction._

'Her' name was Walpurgisnacht.

 _Tomorrow, and the day after, is the night of Walpurgis._

 **I**

 **Dawn**

Normally, Hibari Kyoya didn't attack girls.

No, he wasn't being sexist. In his view, girls or boys were the same. Weak and pathetic. Those herbivores always fled at the mere sight of him. He didn't fight girls because they knew better than to approach him, and it wasn't worth it.

That was until he met her.

The thing was, he always patrol around the city in the dead of night. He didn't need any more herbivore like him disrupting his Namimori. The orange herbivore and the baby already brought enough trouble, too much for his liking. On the other hand, they attracted stronger herbivores too, and this somewhat pleased him. Just somewhat.

And why midnight? There's less crowding, less useless herbivores to deal with. And he certainly enjoyed the cool, chilling, peaceful air.

Then a clicking sound caught his attention. His eyes darted around for any suspicious herbivore and finally, after ten seconds, they laid on a girl in front of an ATM. She had ridiculously long pale red hair that was tied up into a high ponytail. Her bangs made it hard for him to make out the color of her eyes. Was the girl breaking the ATM? He narrowed his eyes. She dared to steal money in front of his eyes? Unacceptable. He growled loud enough for the girl to hear. "Herbivore."

The redhead turned around. He could see it, the mischievousness and the fire in her red eyes - was she wearing contacts? "Herbivore?" She spoke, sucking the pocky stick in her mouth, clearly confused. "Do I look like a vegetarian to you?"

"A herbivore is a herbivore." He replied, his cold eyes fixed on hers. Every herbivore he had come across would flinch under his glare and run for their lives right now.

However, she did not. In fact, she didn't seem like she was bothered by his killing intent at all. She just lazily stood there, her scarlet eyes bored into him, daring him to make a move.

Interesting.

Neither of them moved for a long time. Her lazy stare was locked with his piercing one. They were waiting for the other to falter. And he wasn't going to back down from this battle of will.

Finally, after a very long time, she released a sigh and shrugged. "Whatever. For your information, I eat meat too."

"Hn." He replied. She raised an eyebrow at his answer. "By the way, who are you ?" She didn't know him? She's not from this town then. And he hated that.

"None of your concern." She frowned at the answer, putting her hands on her hip.

"What? How rude of you, a lady is asking you here." She paused, her pocky stick leaning on the edge of her lips, "The least you could do is answer it. It's common sense, buddy."

"Doesn't matter," He replied, "All you need to know is you're disrupting the peace of Namimori"

"Peace? You're the one who interrupted me from doing my job." She retorted.

"You're busting an ATM."

"So? Survival is important" She shrugged. "And so is money. Not like I can get a job." She crouched down again to casually resume doing the previous activity as if he wasn't there. Was she look down on him? "But still, it's embarrassing, getting caught red-hand."

He could feel his patience wearing thin "Stop what you're doing and leave, herbivore."

"Leave?" She asked, annoyance in her voice. She didn't even bother to look up at him.

She got guts, he had to admit. Not everyone could be so casual with the infamous prefect, except the baby. And now her. He raised his tonfas. The sound of metal must have caught her attention as she titled her head to face him at such an extreme angle that he thought it was impossible to do that.

"You don't own this place. You don't have an effin' say on what I do." He noticed her gaze flicked down to the tonfas for a second before glancing up at him. "Tonfas, really? Such a strange choice of weapon. But, it's not like I'm the one to complain." She grinned.

Oh how he wanted to wipe that cocky grin off her face. " _I'll bite you to death_." He growled menacingly. Her grin only grew wider. "Oh, kinky, don't you?" She took a bite of her pocky and then continued to leave it between her teeth. "I'd like to see you try, _boy_."

And that was all he need before he launched himself toward the redhead. He swung one of his tonfas down, waiting for its cold metal skin to hit her pale flesh.

What he didn't expect, however, was the redhead jumping backward, successfully _dodged_ his blow. And on her hand was a handful of money. "Sorry, Tonfa-boy," He twitched at the nickname, "But I'm busy. Until next time, 'kay?"

The feeling of surprise in the prefect soon faded and was replaced with excitement. An interesting herbivore. "Do you think you can escape from me?" From what he had seen, the girl was strong. And he desired battles. This opportunity was simply too good to pass up.

"I don't think, buddy" She shook her head in a playful manner. "I will." After the declaration, she jumped up- he widened his eyes as she jumped off from her position and in a blink of an eye, she was now standing gracefully on the nearby roof, grinning at him smugly.

He calmly watched as the girl was leaping between rooftops. He'd let her go- for now. But it wouldn't be long. As long as she still remained on Namimori, he would find her. No matter where she hid. It's just a matter of time before he bit her to death.

So with that, he turned on his heel and walked away, disappearing into the darkness.

 **II  
**

 **May the fate guide us**

Kyoko Sakura didn't know what had driven her to come to Namimori.

"I'll probably return to Kazamino." was what she had said, and Homura raised her eyebrows in confusion.

Together they had, miraculously, defeat the mighty Walpurgisnacht. The witch was a pain in the ass, she had to admit. After the fight, her Grief Seed supply had decreased quite a bit, which was a lot since she had like what, more than fifty? But well, the witch dropped loads of Grief Seed so it didn't matter much. But still.

Madoka had approached them after that, worry and relief on her face.

"Why?" Homura and Madoka asked at the same time. She answered.

"Well, the Walpurgisnacht was down, so there won't be really many witches around here anymore." She paused, "Since there is an excellent magical girl in Mitakihara, I won't have much chance." She pulled out a pocky and ate it. "So I'll leave. Simple as that."

The girls nodded in understanding. Madoka spoke up, "How about going to Namimori?"

"Namimori?" From what she knew, Namimori was a small and peaceful town. Too peaceful for her taste in fact. Nothing interesting was there. But Madoka must have recommended the town for a reason. So she waited for Madoka to continued.

"Well, I heard some... interesting rumors about Namimori. Something about a demon prefect. With strength that can rival with a Puella Magi, if the rumors are true."

"Hmm... sound interesting." She bit another pocky. A strength that can match a Puella Magi's? That had indeed caught her attention. "Okay, maybe I'll check it out." She grinned and patted the girl's head. "Thanks."

And with a final wave of goodbye from Madoka, a nod from Homura and a grin from her, she set off to Namimori.

That was the story of two weeks ago. Now that she had been here, she quickly found a place to sleep. It was a rental of course. And the people here was so kind that it made it easier to- erm- steal stuff (not that she was proud of it- but survival was important)

However, that changed when she encountered the infamous protector of Namimori.

Apparently, that guy didn't have a habit of normal people. How could she know that the most feared person in this place always patrols in effin' midnight, instead of going to sleep like normal people?

Now she knew why she hadn't come across a lot of gangs like the other cities, even when it was 12 o'clock.

Her first impression of him was aloof. _Like a cloud_.

"Herbivore" was what he had called her. So that was his term for weaklings? An irregular turn of phrase, she mused. Was it because he views the world as a food chain?

Compelling.

She could feel his glare on her. Threatened her, analyzing her, screaming at her to run away.

Not that she was affected by it. He wasn't the only stubborn one. So she returned the gesture with her own, albeit a lazy one, but it was still a glare. The competition last for a long time. She mentally smirked. It looked like she had found a rival. Of stubbornness.

As much as she wanted to continue, however, she still had unfinished business here. The night wouldn't last long, and she was falling short of cash. So she ignored him and returned to her previous activity. It would only take a couple more steps and voila, mission completed.

She knew he was boiling with anger that was directed at her, for ignoring him. The action would provoke everyone, including her, so she wasn't really surprised.

She heard a metal sound. She turned around. The raven was holding metal tonfas. Tonfas? "Tonfas, really? Such a strange choice of weapon." Her spear came into mind as she said that, causing her to grin. "But, it's not like I'm the one to complain." Who would use a medieval weapon in the age of Guns and Nuclear weapons?

(At the same time, in an unknown place in Italy, a certain pineapple sneezed.)

This guy was a bloodthirsty type, Kyoko concluded. He would never miss a chance to 'bite people to death' as the prefect put it.

He had strength to back it up, too. Madoka wasn't kidding when she said the guy could put up a fight with a Puella Magi. He lunged at her with an impressive speed that no normal people could be fast enough to dodge. Just what the heck did he eat?

Fortunately, she was not normal in any way. Plus, she wasn't be called 'the fastest magical girl alive' for nothing. So she avoided the upcoming blow with ease. While Mister Herbivore was widening his eyes in surprise, she instantaneously approached the ATM and collected the money. Just as she finished, her opponent snapped out of the current state and prepared to land another strike at her.

From what she had seen so far, with this fella as an opponent, she would have to transform in order to get away unscathed. And she would like to avoid that scenario, thank you very much. A Puella Magi's secret wasn't something to be spilled so easily.

"Sorry, Tonfa-boy," she watched with satisfaction as the boy twitched at the nickname. "But I'm busy. Until next time, 'kay?"

"Do you think you can escape from me?" He replied. Of course he would say that. She slightly crouched to prepare for her escape. "I don't think, buddy" She shook her head in a playful manner. "I will."

Not giving the raven a chance to attack her, she jumped off the ground and land on the nearby roof. While a Puella Magi's agility, strength and speed could only be boost while she was under transformation, it wasn't necessary to dress-up to perform a long, abnormal jump. While doing this would for sure raise suspicion, but it was still a preferable alternate choice, as nothing Magical-girl-related came into the scene here. She took a final glance at the stunned expression on his face, letting the grin crept up on her face and leaped off the roof.

Now that she was alone again, she pondered at the events. With Tonfa-guy came into the picture, it would be harder to perform stealing from now on. She frowned. And she would have to fight that guy more often since it would be impossible to avoid that guy. Namimori was his territory, and the town wasn't that big to begin with. She thought of her Grief Seed supply which was carefully hidden in her room. Her grief seed supply, unless she fought witches on a weekly basis (which was unlikely since only Mikitahira had that many witches, and Walpurgis just had been defeated too so now not even Mikitahira reach that amount), would last for at least ten years from now. But if she had to fight that violent mons- guy (she was more a monster than that guy was) on a, she dare say, daily basis, she would at some point had to use magic. Then just exactly how long she would last, even with a Walpurgis-level Grief Seed supply?

She shook her head. She was worrying too much. With that guy or not, she would certainly last for a very long time, longer than she would. And besides, she smiled melancholy, Puella Magi was never mean to live for long.

She bit her pocky that has been in her mouth the entire time and slowly ate it up, savoring the familiar sweetness.

Walking on the earth for more than thirty years, was a fortune no Puella Magi dare to dream.

 **III**

 **Oddity**

After a week living here, Kyoko decided, that this town was odd.

Firstly, it would always be approximately five a.m in the morning when a loud noise woke her up. It was a high-pitched scream at first (she cringed at the sound every time she heard it, who the heck can scream that high?) and was then follow by a gunshot (she snapped out of her sleeping state) and finally a loud yell of "REBORN!" was heard. (Seriously, she was trying to sleep here! How come nobody has complaint about this yet?)

Sometimes, she let her curiosity got the better of her and peeked out of the window. And she always gawked at what she saw.

A boy who only wore a pair of yellow boxer ran out of the house at an immense speed. And casually walked out of the door was a strange baby whose hand held a green gun that was filling with smoke at its tip. Kyoko whistled. Who gave the baby a gun?

Out of all things she had expected when she came to this small town, a baby who wears suits was not one of them.

And neither was a boy running around in only his boxers and a bright, yellow flame burning on his forehead. She raised her eyebrows. Wouldn't that hurt?

After a few days, however, she just shrugged it away and went back to sleep, not noticing the baby looking at her direction with an unreadable expression that no baby should have. But when she did, she tried to ignore the dread feeling in her stomach-

 _'That baby is not normal'_ something inside her whispered, _'He is dangerous. Unknown. Like Kyubey.'_

-to no avail, unfortunately.

And some days after, during one of her 'jobs', she heard explosions coming from the school. She had tried to investigate, but when she noticed the tonfa boy, she gave up the idea. (Later, she learned he loved that school more than everything in the world and would be there most of the time, which made it easier for the redhead to do stuff.)

On the side note, there was a fool here to. Abadoning his life- something every Puella Magi cherished- so easily, and almost suceed too. But the redhead was there, on the rooftop, at that time. She was pissed, very pissed.

 _"What are you doing, boy?"_

 _He whipped around, his dull eyes widening at her figure. She lazily approached him while munching a cupcake in the procese. After a minute of silence - the only one who was there at that moment was her and the fool- she sat down next to him, observing the school. She had never gone to school since the accident, so it was a decent school, she guess. But not enough for the tonfa boy to love it so dearly._

 _"Going to give up so easily?"_ _She tried not to raise her voice in anger._

 _"After the baseball god threw me away, I have nothing left." An answer. A pathetic one but nonetheless, an answer._

 _"So you lost your only purpose at life. Your life is meaningless without it. Am I right?" He slightly flinched. Then he slowly nodded._

 _To some extent, she could see a small part of her in the boy. They both lost their world. They were jealous of the others, of the happiness that they didn't have.  
_

 _But unlike him, she continued to move on. Dull and meaningless it might be, but it was better than to die._

 _Or worse, to turn into a witch, the very same creature she hunted, the only purpose she had now to keep moving forward._

 _"You're an idiot. Pathetic."_

 _"You don't understand my feeling." He growled at her. His eyes was sharp, cold and dull._

 _"You know nothing about me. Do not go around and make assumption that you're the only one who've lost themselves."_

 _His glare softened. She could hear the footsteps was near. Someone was going up here. And she could spot a crowd that was starting to form under her feet. She got up from her position, stretching her arms lazily._

 _"Well, we got company. No doubt the tonfa boy would be here soon-" she saw the boy raised an eyebrow at the nickname "-so goodbye for now. If you decided to stop being an idiot, that is."_

 _She left, but not before spare a glance at the audience, well-hidden behind the building. She was certain that the mysterious figure caught it anyway._

 _She had a hunch that it was the baby.  
_

After that fiasco, she soon found the guy again, with the same boy who ran out of the house in boxers everyday, with a goofy grin on his face. She was leaning on the nearby pole when they noticed her. On her hand was a custard cream puff, Namimori style. It was quite delicious. The black hair boy waved at her excitedly, "Oh, you're the girl from before!"

"So you'd decided to grow a brain and not jump off. Congrats."

He laughed. "Yeah, it was pretty stupid of me." He wrapped his arms around the brunet next to him and the said boy yelped at the contact. "If it wasn't for Tsuna, I wouldn't be here now."

She looked at 'Tsuna'. The boy was short, he had an impossible spiky hair, and he looked like he couldn't even hurt a fly. But as they said, appearance could be deceiving.

"So you're the one who save him? Good job saving that idiot over there."

The brunet flushed embarrassingly at her words. "A-ah, you're wrong! I-I didn't do much."

"Well, the idiot say you save him then you save him. Are you saying that he's wrong?"

"N-no!"

"Then? Just accept the damn compliment." His face became even redder before he clumsily nodded. She sighed. "Whatever."

Just as she turned her heels over, the small boy grabbed her wrist. "Ah, w-wait!"

She turned her head around in the same impossible angle as she always did. His eyes widened slightly. "M-my name is Sawada Tsunayoshi, but you can call me Tsuna instead," he paused and pointed to the boy next to him, "and this is Yamamoto Takeshi. W-what's your name?"

She didn't answer right away as she stared at him, causing the boy to gulped nervously. Nobody talked for quite a long time.

She was the first to break the silence. "The name's Sakura Kyoko. Nice to meet ya."

The idiot- Yamamoto - let out a laugh, "Haha, Nice to meet you too! Thanks again, Sakura-san!"

Tsunayoshi sheepily smiled, "Nice to meet you too, Sakura-san."

"Yeah yeah." She waved her free hand in a lazy manner. "Formality and all that crap. But call me Kyoko instead. Sakura sounds weird." She paused. "Oh, gotta go, before the precious prefect of yours bite me to death"

"Y-you mean Hibari-san?" Oh, so that was his name.

"If your Hibari-san prefer to bite people to death with a tonfa then yes, I mean Hibari-san... Say what's his full name?" She wouldn't miss a chance to learn more about him. When your opponent is the notorious 'demon' of Namimori, knowledge is power.

"It is Hibari Kyoya. D-do you know him?" She ate the cream puff in one bite. "You could say that." She took out from reborn-know-where another cream puff. "Want one?"

Yamamoto gladly accepted it while Tsunayoshi just shook his head frantically. "N-no thanks, Sa-Kyoko-san!"

She shrugged. "Suits yourself." But before she could gave the baseball star the cream puff-

"Herbivores, you're crowding." Damn. Here goes the bloodthirsty skylark. So much for escaping. Out the corner of her eyes, she noticed Tsuna's face turned white. Huh, she had never known a human could be so pale. Apparently, she was wrong.

"Hiieee! H-Hibari-san!" She slightly winced at the shriek. When she finally regained her composure, she noticed that the skylark's full attention was currently directed towards Tsuna and the idiot.

Wait.

If she was discreet enough, she could escape him.

So, with that in mind, she quickly but quietly backed away from the scene. And later, when she'd been far away from Tsuna and his group, she swore she heard a loud, piercing "WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'LL BITE KYOKO-SAN TO DEATH?" and then "WHEN DID YOU GET HERE REBORN!?" She licked the cream off her lips.

Well, it was hardly a surprise at this point.

After all, oddity in Namimori is normal.

And it wasn't like she hate the chaos that followed.

 **?**

 **The wheel of fate is turning**

"You aren't a normal baby, are you?"

It wasn't long before the fedora baby approached her. When she saw him from afar, she had always felt this... thing around him. Abnormal. Hidden. _Dangerous_.

And now that he was in front of her, the feelings just grew stronger. It just didn't make sense.

"You are quite sharp for a fifteen years old." He smirked. He was interested. In her. She could tell.

"And you are too smart for a baby." She was smiling. But on the inside, she was sweating. What would he do?

"Am I?" He smiled innocently. But she was no fool. There was nothing innocent about that smile.

"Cut to the chase. What do you want?"

Approval in his tone. "Yes, cut to the chase." He looked at her, his onyx orbs showed no emotion. "You're correct. I'm not a normal baby."

 _ **The curtain has been lifted.**_

"I'm Reborn, a hitman from the Vongola Family."

It sounded impossible.

"And Tsuna is the 10th boss of the Vongola."

But deep down, she knew it was true. Every words he said. It was nothing but truth. And it scared her.

"So, I ask you. Do you want to join Tsuna's Famiglia?"

 _ **Let another show begin.**_

* * *

 **A/N :** **This is the longest chapter I've ever written: 4,406 words. Yay, I guess.  
**

 **This fanfiction is inspired from another PMMM/KHR fanfic: Of black cherries and gorgeous nightmare. So the main pairing will be Hibari x Kyoko. (Or as I like to put it, Hiouko) But this story will not focus on only Hiouko and to an extent, Romance. Oh, and Hiouko won't be the only pairing :) Can you guess the other pairing?**

 **You must have been wondering: What PMMM! timeline is this? Well, it isn't the Anime's timeline. It is an ending from the PSP game. The one where Mami died, Sayaka didn't become a Puella Magi so Homura teamed up with Kyoko to defeat Walpurgisnacht. It was the only ending that gives Kyoko a reason to leave Mitakihara. Plus, in that ending, she had a lifetime stock of Grief Seed so she wouldn't worry about the corruption for a while, even with the constant fighting in KHR Universe.**

 **Will Kyubey come to Namimori? Well, for the time being, he remained in Mitakihara to wait for a chance to make a contract with Madoka. (Why haven't you give up yet you little bastard) And if he did show up later, he wouldn't have any major role so yeah, no worry.**

 **So, review, please? Pretty please, with cheese on top?**


	2. 04-07

"So, I ask you. Do you want to join Tsuna's Famiglia?"

Her face was blank. "What's in it for me?" Truth to be told, something in his voice told her that saying 'no' wasn't really a choice, but she asked it anyway.

"I know you don't have any money with you," Reborn said casually, "do you think you can steal the money for so long, when Hibari is here?"

She gritted her teeth in annoyance. "Who do you think I am? I know that, thank you very much." She wasn't that stupid to ignore the fact that she couldn't hide the skylark forever. It was like avoiding the inevitable fate of Puella Magi. The chance was slim. To put it simply, it was effin' impossible.

"So what do you say?" She pondered over her choice. It was simple. She could either say no and walk away, or accept it and deal with the chaos that followed. She even had free money.

But she knew the mafia was dangerous. _Family. Italian. Hitman. Boss._ It would require a lot of fighting, and she wasn't going to expose the secret to the underground. Without the magic, she'd likely be dead. And she didn't think she would be ready to kill anybody. _Even if she left the innocents to dead because of Grief Seed-_

So she said exactly like that to the baby, minus the puella magi part. The baby, however, just smirked. "If I were you, I wouldn't worry about that anytime soon."

"How do you if I were strong enough for the underground?"

"I'll train you."

"How could a baby train me?", she paused, "On the second thought, you ain't." She realized the baby was cursed earlier. She could feel the magic on his body. It was foreign to her magic, but familiar in some way. That was one of the perks that came with being a veteran Puella Magi, to be able to feel the magic. Even though she didn't have the chance to use this ability much.

"Glad you realize, unlike my no good student." The smirk never left his face. It looked weird, when he had the body of a baby.

"I ain't blindly accept a contract that I knew nothing about its content." _Never again_ , she mentally added. But she knew the baby caught it anyway. According to Tsuna, Reborn could read mind. Then again, in her opinion, he just good at reading people.

Because if he used mind reading, she would have known. Even when she could no longer use her illusions, she was still somewhat immune to the psychic abilities. _Somewhat_.

"Hm, I can approve of that. Only a fool will charge in unprepared." A small nod. "Very well then, let's me explain."

Then he launched into a lengthy explanation of flames, vongola, and guardians. Lengthy, but it only contained the basic. Of course, mafia would have lots of confidential stuffs.

By the end of his explanation, she already knew enough to learn that mafia was more related to supernatural than it seemed. The thing that bothered her most was, however, flames.

From what Reborn told her, Dying Will flames was described as high-density form of energy that is refined from one's own life-force, and the flame resonated with one's emotion.

There, the problem was right there.

Kyubey said that magic were forces created from fluctuation of emotion, unbounded by the First Law of Thermodynamic.

See the problem? Both powers were originated from emotion. In addition to that, the soul was what provided the body with life force. And it was common knowledge that the usage of magic made the Soul gem tainted.

If she put it that way, magic sounded a lot like the next stage of Dying Will flame, but more diverse and limitless.

Then if she used flames even while not being under transformation, would it affect her Soul Gem?

She couldn't jump to the conclusion just yet. It required experiments which she would need to do it as soon as possible. And until then, she couldn't risk it.

"Sorry, kid. But I'd like to put your proposal on hold." She paused, "I'd first need to sort something out first, would you mind to wait until then?"

"Would it take a long time?" He asked.

"Not too long, I supposed. Maybe a day or two." She could tell that the baby was curious. Nevertheless, he didn't press into it to her relief.

"Okay. See you later then." The baby spun around, ready to leave, but she just need to ask him for one more thing. "Wait!"

He stopped moving, waiting for her to continue.

"If I joined, I won't be a guardian. Will you make me?" She asked.

"Hn." He tilted his fedora, "Don't worry, I already filled most of the spot with the potential guardian. I haven't found a mist yet, but if you don't want to be a guardian, that's fine with me." He smirked. "As long as you make Tsuna's famiglia grow."

"Whatever."

"I will look forward to seeing what you can do." Reborn immediately walked towards the street light and to her surprise, a small door appeared from the pole. He casually entered it, leaving her wondering just how many secret doors the baby had built.

Ah damn it, she forgot she didn't know how to use Flames. It looked like she have to visit him many times in the future. Unfortunately.

 **IV  
Progress**

"Again. Dodge." Reborn raised the gun at her. Before she could even blink, mutiple bullets (painted balls) had been fired.

"You're sure... enjoying this... kid." Kyoko said between gasps. If she was in her magical girl mode right now, dodging these would be piece of cake. But she wasn't.

So to hell with all these bullets.

While she could avoid some of them, she wasn't came out unscathed.

"Damn.. these paints will be hard to wash..."

She suddenly felt pity towards Tsuna. To think he had been enduring these merciless training all the time.

Knowing reborn, his 'training' would be even more hellish.

Poor guy.

"Your agility is higher than I expected," Reborn commented. "Is that because of the nature of your former job?" Ouch. That burned.

"Who knows..." Kyoko dodged a bullet on her left side. "It's for me... to know." She jumped just in time to avoid the upcoming bullet. "and for you..." She flipped gracefully. "... to decide."

"Very well." Suddenly, the assault ended. She looked at Reborn questioningly. "Next exercise, 100 push-ups for me." She stared at him. "Agility alone can not do great damage. You need power in your strike."

"You're gonna be the death of me someday, you know that?"

"It'd be my pleasure then." He reloaded his gun. "Hurry."

She sighed. It was good, she guessed. Kyubey never gave them any proper training as he felt no need to do so (Puella Magi's lifespan was short anyway). If her normal speed and strength increased with Reborn's hellish training, she could only imagined the power she'd gain with magic's boost.

"40... 41... 42..."

She wanted to be stronger. Only the strong could survive. She desired to live, even if it was painful.

"55... 56... 57..."

Her 'training' would always continue until afternoon. Today was no exception.

And like every time, by the time they finished, Kyoko could no longer move. She sit under a nearby tree, drinking juice.

And just her luck, she heard an oh-so-familiar voice.

"Herbivore."

She didn't even need to look to know who it was.

"Skylark." She greeted.

Hibari stood right in front of her. Before he could say anything, Kyoko spoke up. "If you want to get your little revenge, do it someday later."

Silence. "I'm just a dead meat right now. Are you going to get your petty revenge on a powerless girl?"

"Hn." He replied, still grumpy as ever.

"Glad you still have morals, Mister Carnivore." She smirked. Hibari wordlessly left. Kyoko chuckled. So Hibari wouldn't fight anybody who was incapable of fighting back. Must be because they wouldn't give him a challenge.

Typical.

Reborn had long gone. It was just herself now.

So she mused.

She had been introduced to a new kind of power. Flame. Power of the underground. Invisible to some. Hard to use.

Luckily, she had been making progress.

After paying Reborn a couple of visits, she could use her flame to an extent. Apparently, she had Storm Flame and Mist flame. But she couldn't activate the Mist flame at the moment.

"People with multiple flames happen due to major life changing accidents and usually only occur in people with something very bad in their history." Reborn said to her, staring at her, waiting for her to comment on the fact. She remained quiet. It seemed that her wish and her past activated the Mist flame inside her. And the... accident sealed it off.

As painful as it is, she wished to have her illusion back. She couldn't deny its usefulness.

He asked her if she knew why. She chose not to say a word. And the hitman didn't asked her further. As always. But she couldn't avoid it forever.

Back to her flame training. Even though having Reborn training her with her Flame was certainly helpful, it proved difficult sometimes to hide her true power. Like when he said flames can be used with an object that she was familiar with. And she certainly couldn't just show him her spear. So she usually only learned theory from the baby and practiced at home with her spear, without the baby noticing of course.

Using flame was like magic in some ways, she was finally able to concluded. At least the 'moving the energy into your fingertip' part. After a week or so, she was able to activate her flame with ease. Her strong will to survive helped too.

She too didn't find it too difficult to connect the flame with her spear. She figured because she had been using the spear for a very long time, so the weapon held close to her heart.

That being said, the question was still there. Would using Flame tainted her soul gem?

She brought her hand forth. A bright light. The familiar spear came into her hand, along with the soul gem. Only one way to know.

The storm flame was brought to life, dancing brightly at the head of her spear. The gem still shone brightly. She tightened her grip, trying her best to push the power of the flame, to overcome the limit.

She watched closely as the flame increased in size. At the same time, the glow in the gem slowly became dull. The change wasn't too drastic like when she used magic, but it was there.

She breathed out. Along with the flame, her spear vanished into the air.

Magic could made one surpass their limits. And earlier, she was surpassing the flame's limit. So as long as she didn't bypass the limit too much, the flame did no damage to her soul gem.

She grinned. Perfect.

 **V**

 **Musing**

She didn't know what to think of the newest addition to Tsuna's group of mafia.

His hair was silver - who the heck had natural silver hair? - and he always had that scowl on his face. Not the 'annoying-me-and-i-will-bite-you-to-death' kind but rather the 'everything-except-from-tsuna-is-annoying' one.

Now that she thought about it, Homura kinda gave of that kind of feeling too. Even though the raven girl didn't as agressive as this boy. On the outside, of course.

On the inside, they were just as bad, really.

Her suspicion was confirmed when she walked up to the trio.

"'Sup guys. Who's the guy? Newest addition to your saving record?"

Needless to say, the 'newest addition' did not take it well.

"What's that woman? Are you offending The Tenth?"

She raised her eyebrow. "The Tenth?"

"Gokudera-san! I told you not to call me that!" Tsuna turned to Kyoko. "Well, I met him before meeting Yamamoto-san on the roof. But he was... sick when you met us."

"But Tsuna-sama is Tsuna-sama! It'd be disrespectful of me to call you otherwise!"

Ah, so he's _that_ type. And probably belonged to _that_ world too. Figured.

"Make normal friends, will you?" Kyoko chuckled. Poor kid. The brunette could only whined.

"Don't question The Tenth's choice, woman!" Okay, Kyoko growled, this was becoming annoying real quick. "What's next?", Kyoko muttered, "The skylark joined the gang?"

She hoped not. Not in the near future, at least.

"Well then, see ya later." She raised a hand in goodbye and then walked away. The chatter of Tsuna's group slowly faded away.

Tap. tap. tap.

She stopped walking.

"Reborn." She spoke. True to her word, a baby already stood behind her.

"Your detecting skill is amazing as always."

"I know." She turned her head around. "So, what do you want with me?"

"Nothing serious." Reborn replied. "Just want to invite you to my birthday tomorrow."

"Oh?" She smirked. "Need I prepare a present for you?"

"It would be appreciate." Reborn smirk, "Keep in mind, however, that it will be graded."

Kyoko looked at him questioningly. "A tradition of Vongola." Reborn lifted up his hat with the gun. "I look forward to your present, Kyoko." The baby then walked away, leaving Kyoko alone.

She looked up at the sky. A beautiful color of azure met her gaze. She sighed. "What to give Reborn..."

In the end, she gave him a cake. Nothing could go wrong with cake.

 **VI**

 **Festival**

Kyoko had always enjoyed summer festival.

Who wouldn't? So much food with cheaper price, not to mention all the prizes laying out there for her to claim. It was a pity that she didn't have a yukata though.

So when she went to the festival, she had one goal in mind: Eat all the food. And won some prizes, if possible.

"Herbivore."

And of course, she met Hibari.

"Next time, dude." She waved her hand lazily. "Not today. Nothing can keep me away from food." Suprisingly, Hibari accepted the peace offer. She shrugged. "By the way, what are you doing here? You said you don't like crowding."

"I don't." He answered. "I need to collect placement fee."

"Hoh?" She smirked. "Didn't take you as a greedy type."

"It's for our activity fund." He replied nonchalantly. "Hm..." Kyoko pondered. Knowing his behavior, the store that couldn't pay placement fee would likely end up closing immediately. It could be even before she get her hand on the food. So the only solution was...

"Okay. I'm going with you." Like our ancestors said, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If she went with Hibari, she could order the food before the store got shut down.

He glared at her. Typical. "You don't."

She rolled her eyes. "How about this," she began. "You let me accompany you, and I get to order food before a store got violently shut down by you. And then tomorrow I will come to your precious school to fight with you."

A spark. "Deal." Well, that was quick. Fighting him was a pain, but if it was for food, then it's worth the effort.

Later, she decided it wasn't a bad decision after all.

Anybody who refused to pay up had their store crushed by Hibari's minions. And as promised, Hibari let her ordered before crushing a store. Her opinion of him was raised thanks to the gesture. How nice of him~

At the moment she was walking alongside him, her both hands were full with food. Seriously, it had been a long time since she went to a summer festival. And when she did, going alone had been boring.

The infamous demon prefect wasn't exactly a good company, but it was better than none.

She noticed Tsuna's stand. Yamamoto and Gokudera (she learned his name at Reborn's birthday party) were there too. It seemed they were selling chocolate banana. She quickly approached them before Hibari could. "A choco banana please~" She said cheerfully.

"Kyoko-san!"

"Yo, Tsuna, Yamamoto, Gokudera. As lively as ever I see." She finished her takoyaki, glancing at the shouting Gokudera. It was hilarious to see Yamamoto attracted the customers while Gokudera did the opposite.

"Here you go, Kyoko-san!" The cheerful teen handed the banana to her as she took it. She glanced at her back. It seemed Hibari had catched up with her. She jumped back, directing Tsuna's attention to the prefect.

"50,000 yen" Hibari said. "Hibari-san!?" Tsuna shrieked. Pff. Tsuna's reactions were always amusing to watch.

"You!" Gokudera shouted. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't tell me.." Yamamoto sweatdropped.

"The placement fee goes to the disciplinary office!?" Tsuna ended, his face turning white. "It's for his precious activity funds." Kyoko took a bite off the banana. "His club sure has more power than I thought."

"Thanks." Hibari took the money with ease. That went faster than she thought. "We're done here, herbivore."

"Hai hai, captain!" Kyoko grinned mischeviously. She ignored Tsuna's shout of "Wait kyoko-san are you following Hibari-san!?" and skipped to his side. What can she say, she was in good mood because of food.

The rest of the trip went by peacefully and soon enough the sun began to set. Currently, she and Hibari were following Tsuna as he chased down some unknown robber. It was Hibari's objective to catch the robber gang so they followed the brunette.

By the time they catched up with him, she found the guy was being cornered by a group of tough looking guy. "Oh boy," she whistled, "A delicious crowd that made up of robbers for our dearest prefect to beat up."

"Shut up, herbivore." He growled as he swung down his weapons on the nearest target. "Are you going to punish these herbivores with me or just uselessly stand here?"

"Of course I'm joining!" She laughed. "I'm running short of money lately. And what's a better source of income than the money they stole?"

"If you can take it away from me." Hibari raised his bloody tonfas. "We, the disciplinary office, will take all the money you stole."

"Another idiot that pissed me off." the blonde man shoved Tsuna aside, "And a cute girl with him to. Perfect."

Kyoko, Tsuna and Hibari was soon surrounded.

"No need to go easy on them!" The blonde shouted, "Kill off that messy kid and capture the girl!"

"Isn't this a little too much for Hibari-san? And can Kyoko-san even fight?" She heard Tsuna said. So she was being underestimated by him. Very well. She leaped to the guy with a metal pole and punched him in the face, snatching away his weapon. It wasn't her spear but it would do just fine.

"So sad Tsuna, to see you have little faith in me." Ignoring Tsuna's shouting, she jumped off the ground and swung the pole, effectively knocked out three guys.

"Hn, you aren't bad, herbivore." Another kick in the gut. "Stop calling me herbivore!"

He only hummed in response.

She popped the rest of dango into her mouth. And performed a scorpion kick right after that.

A loud explosion at the stair. It was Takeshi and Gokudera. They must have came here because of all the noise.

"The supporters have arrived." Yamamoto said casually, baseball hat in hand.

"No way." Hibari said, "The money that was stolen will go to me."

"As if," Kyoko laughed. "I will be the one who takes it!"

Sounds of "No way!", "I won't give it to you!" echoed in the background. She shrugged and resumed fighting.

In the end, Tsuna and co. got the money. She didn't care though. Reborn got her money issue covered, so she's willing to let the money slide.

It was nighttime. She was munching some newly-bought candies apple at the moment. And Hibari sit next to her, injured.

"How come you came out of that fight unscathed?" An interrogation.

"I heal fast. You don't. End of story." She offered him one candy apple. "Want some?"

Before he could reply, (which Kyoko predicted was a refusal) Kyoko beat him to it. "Don't you dare refuse. It's festival time, loosen up! Don't let all these candies goes to waste."

"You have no problem devouring all those food you bought." Smartass.

"Sharing is caring. Can't have you eating nothing while I'm eating everything."

They glared at each other. Red met black. Mischievous met cold.

After a whole minute of silence, he finally gave in and snatched the candy from her hand.

They ate in silence. "Good?" The redhead asked. "Acceptable."

"Good then." She grinned. Like a cat. He wanted to wipe that cocky smile off her face. But he didn't.

A loud noise. A bright light in the sky. Cheering from the herbivores.

"Oh, fireworks!" Her eyes sparkled. "Haven't seen one in a while."

"Remember, herbivore." He reminded her. "Tomorrow. Eight o'clock. Rooftop."

She sent him a blank stare. "Spoilsport."

 **VII**

 **Balter**

Today was the day.

The promised duel between one Sakura Kyoko and Hibari Kyoya.

Hibari Kyoya is an opponent who can't be underestimated no matter what. So while she wouldn't transform, she had brought along her spear. Normally she would met him empty hand and summon the spear right before the fight, but she was trying to go undercover here.

She wasn't a student so she couldn't exactly entered the school and headed to the rooftop like a normal person.

That's what magic was for.

Just like how she arrived at the rooftop when Yamamoto tried to suicide, she jumped. She thought she saw some widened eyes look at her, full of shock, she couldn't bring herself to care.

She landed gracefully on the floor. The first thing came to view was a cloudy sky.

And Hibari Kyoya.

"Herbivore." He greeted, eyeing her spear. "Yo." She greeted back.

"A spear?"

"Don't question my choice of weapon." She brushed off his question casually. She spun the spear before dashing to his place. "Just fight."

Hibari raised his tonfas, attempting to deflect the upcoming attack. She decided to surprise him a bit.

She swiftly swung her spear, causing it to split into chains. She sure enjoyed the surprise look on his face before being violently thrown back by the force of the weapon and crashed into the fence.

"Stand up!" Kyoko laughed. "The fight isn't over yet!" She watched as the raven slowly stood up.

"That hurts." Hibari smiled. Finally, a worthy opponent. "I'll bite you to death."

Not waiting for her opponent to came at her, Kyoko swung her spear again, letting the chains wrapped around his body. "I'd like to see you try." She yanked her spear, successfully pulling the skylark along as well. When he got close enough, she swung back the spear again, throwing him to the other side of the fence.

She quickly ran to his side and stroke at him with the spear. Blows after blows. And it was all blocked by the tonfas. It was like a violent but graceful dance between them.

"You're strong." Hibari said between blows. "More reason to bite you to death."

"Ya know, I'd love to knock some common sense into you-" She had been analyzing him. He got accustomed to fighting a new opponent surprisingly quick. The longer she dragged out this fight, the more disadvantage she would be in. And she wasn't sure her normal stamina could be enough to keep up with this guy.

She could transform and use all her cards, but she didn't want that for a mere spar.

"-but another time. Thanks again for yesterday."

So with that in mind, she launched her spear at him, creating a crater on the floor. _He would be mad at her for destroying the school. Probably demand more fights._ She took advantage of the smoke and left the battleground. She sure could imagine the rage of Hibari when he found out she ran away.

It wouldn't be pretty.

 **?**

 **On edge**

Namimori. A peaceful town that was protected by the notorious prefect.

"Gwah!"

In the pitch black night, only screams could be heard.

Thud.

A man fell to the ground.

"Well well well," A laugh. "The prefects aren't that scary after all!"

Shouting. Desperation.

"Wh-What are you going to do!?"

Click. clack.

"Don't blame me for this~ It's an order from the top."

A pulling sound. Scream. Agonizing. Blood.

Namimori was restless.

* * *

 **A/N: To Kokuyo Arc! New foes to fight, secrets to be spilled, and maybe something more. I'm trying to strengthen Kyoko a bit so Kyoko is on par as Hibari. Maybe weaker at times, but the ability to shut off sense of pain + inhuman rate of recovery will balance the power. Homura and Madoka might visit Kyoko, but I'm deciding the right time to put them in.**

 **Hibari's modified tonfas in the future chapters in a sense, are similar to Kyoko spear's snake form don't you think? He'd get inspired by the flexibility of the spear instead of Dino's whip. So Dino's relationship with Hibari in this story might not be as strong as the original.**

 **Tell me what do you think of this story so far, pretty please? With pocky on top?**

 **See you next chapter!**


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